A wedding … and so much more

A lot of planning goes into a wedding. That was certainly the case with Stephan and Natalie. We only saw some of what had to be decided upon, chosen, made and planned. We were able to help with some of the planning: making cake-pops, setting up the venue, working through some of the ceremony. But there is a lot more that happens before a wedding – at least, that is what we were thankful for. A wedding can be simply a wedding – a big party to mark a certain day. Tht is not what this was.

Stephan and Natalie wanted to have a great day. They wanted the people who would come to the wedding to have fun. But they also knew that this day was what they had worked toward in their relationship and would be the beginning of a lasting life together that was just starting.

We wanted the day to be special for them. We were looking forward to seeing them begin their lives together. But we were also looking forward to getting to know this young woman whom we had, until then, only spoken to via Skype. We knew too that we would be meeting her parents and family. We knew that this day meant we would be giving up our son, gaining a daughter and, hopefully with grace, would be letting go so that they could start this new life together.

How do you let go? Many of you will have experienced this already. Perhaps it is different each time with each child. There are so many emotions on the day (and following, as things start to settle in). Since we hadn’t seen Stephan since December 2010, we were excited to see him again. But of course this would be to see him start a new life as a husband, not just our son. And that is good! That is why he was put in our lives. Our children are placed in our hands for a time so that we can prepare them to grow, to live in Christ and to be a blessing to others. That time had come.

So, we enjoyed the preparations. We had a blast making cake-pops, laughing with our new family. We enjoyed the day, shedding a tear or two and taking that deep breath of pride in these two young people wanting to give themselves totally to each other and to God. And we look forward to the many times coming that we can watch them grow.

You can see a few of our pictures of the wedding over here. Thank you all for being a part of this through the years – seeing these two grow and helping them along the way. We are so thankful that God, who is love, continues to guide their lives together.